John Smith

When archaeologists unearthed the long-lost footprint of Jamestown's first church in 2010, they knew the quartet of 400-year-old burial stains found in front of the altar might be linked to some of the historic English settlement's most prominent figures.

But not until Tuesday at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., could they reveal the outcome of both an intense late-2013 excavation that recovered the deteriorated remains and 20 months of documentary, artifactual and forensic detective work that identified them as colonists of prime importance.

Laid to rest between 1608 and 1610, these early founders include the Rev. Robert Hunt — the first Anglican...

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When archaeologists unearthed the long-lost footprint of Jamestown's first church in 2010, they knew the quartet of 400-year-old burial stains found in front of the altar might be linked to some of the historic English settlement's most prominent figures....